Confusion
by HisSilentFox
Summary: A new intern leaves House puzzled and his team shocked...first time House story, please R&R if it pleases.


House's alarm began its regularly scheduled chirping and its angry red numbers flashed the horrible time of 7:00 am. Groaning and rolling over to smack the obnoxious and offensive machine into silence, which once achieved allowed House to roll back over on to his back. Ice blue eyes opened and stared up at the ceiling while his right hand trailed absentmindedly down to his thigh, light finger tips brush the scar there as if trying to sooth and tame the permanent pain there. Sighing and lifting up House tossed his legs over the edge and sat up, leaning over to pick up his ever waking companions, vicodin, and tossing back two of the treasured comforts, moaning softly as the chalky taste lingers and the effects of the drugs take hold almost instantly. House rested a moment silently preparing for the day ahead of him, a day filled with hiding from Cuddy, being surrounded by intellectual inferiors, dodging clinic duty and finding the right answers to stupid questions. Reaching out, nimble fingers wrap assuredly around the cane he knew he would find, and standing with a slight wince House limped off to the bathroom, bare feet slapping the cold wood floor, muffled by baggy sleep pants. Stepping into the bathroom House relieved himself then turned to wash up. Cleaning his hands, face then finishing with his teeth, leaning to dry his mouth and standing shadowy pools catch themselves in the mirror. Leaning forward House carefully looks at his reflection in the glass, a hand moves up to comb through tangles of unkempt hair, then down to run along his jaw line finding a five a clock shadow that apparently could not tell time, then to the baggy shadows under his chilly gaze. The colors he found there reminded him of something Wilson's cue ball cancer kids might have finger painted. Disgusted House turns from the horrific reminder of his own humanity and limps into his bedroom to dig out something that did not stand on its own, just yet.

Dressed and in the living room House grabs his discarded coat and book bag from his desk then heads to the door, stepping out and crossing the short distance from door frame to bike, House mounts up and in moments is on his way. The ten minuet ride from home to hospital is not wasted on House as he zips by the lake where he use to run and a slight twinge of memories clutches at his heavily guarded human heart. Parking in his spot in the hospital parking lot House unclips his cane from his bike and trudges into the Hospital that he has a love/hate relationship with. Love because Cuddy's breasts are there and people to tinker with and manipulate to do his bidding, hate because stupid people abound not to mention the prospects of clinic duty. The automatic doors swish open and the familiar chatter and bustle erupts, limping across the lobby a voice catches House's attentions.

"Good morning!" Turning to look at the information desk to find where the noise came from House's cool blues come to rest on a cute receptionist, she is young and attractive with almost as nice of wrack as Cuddy, almost.

"You must be new here, I'm Doctor Gregory House. I don't particularly care who you are but just for the sake of no repeats…I don't do mornings and because knowledge is power there is a surgery for you to correct your obnoxiously squeaky and high pitched voice. I am willing to do it for you free of charge 'cause I'm a nice guy.

The look on her face was priceless and if House had time he would have taken a snap shot for his wall of horror. He chuckled despite himself and continued on his way on to the elevators. Just as his cane rubber hit the button Cuddy's clear and angry voice rang out from the clinic doorway.

"HOUSE!" House, you get back here! I own your butt for the next three hours!"

House winced and hunched over as if to hide and pressed the elevator button faster, praying that it would come down before she got across the lobby to him. As if the fates were tinkering with him, a mere mortal for their torture, Cuddy was across the lobby and shoving medical charts in his face long before the hope of escape came down.

"I have a clinic full of sick people and a staff full of nurses that are being abused because the doctor that is suppose to be here seeing and taming the patients decided to come in late. Get your crippled butt in that clinic and do your job before…"

"Before what, you fire me? Fat chance. I'm not doing clinic duty today, sorry, doctors orders."

"What doctor?"

"Me. I say that it is bad for my health being around all those sick and annoying people. It is making me age faster, at this rate I only have a few months to live and I am not going to waste my precious time looking down the throats of people that have nothing better to do than to gag, annoy, sneeze on, and aggravate me." Just then his savior rang open and he disappeared into the door way and hit the closed button before Cuddy had the chance to open her mouth and object. Reaching his haven, the second floor House limped to his office where he stepped through the already opened door with a puzzled look. He stood in the door way looking at the intruder that was sitting in his chair. He looked at the door, then again at the intruder.

"Last time I looked, which indecently was just two seconds ago, the door read 'Doctor Gregory House, MD', which would mean...hmm let me think, oh! That this is my office because I'm Doctor Gregory House, MD. Who the hell are you and why are you in my office, more importantly, my chair?"

The intruder looked up and flashed House a pearly white smile, soft green eyes sparkled and amber waves cupped the face of an angel.

"Yes, you are Gregory House. I could not miss that wit and snippy attitude anywhere. I'm Doctor Pace Maguire. I'm going to be your new intern." She stepped around his desk and held out an ivory hand that was dusted with almost as many freckles as the rest of her. House looked at her hand and traveled up her wrist, arm, to her chest which was clad in a deep emerald, slightly shimmery blouse that was buttoned up minus the top three giving a teasing glance at what House could only guess was a lovely set of twins, to her neck that worn a hemp choker that held green beads, to her lovely face. Taken aback by her comment and sultry voice House took the offered hand, all crude comments slipping out of his brain leaving it soothingly empty for once in its life. Stepping back he looked at her still, a nice black skirt that stopped mid thigh, long legs that were well toned to two petite feet in shiny black flats. A smartly dressed, comfortable, seemingly intelligent female, too bad she was in the wrong place.

"I'm sorry but you said doctor, implying that you have already graduated med school then you, in the same breath mind you, utter the words "new intern". My dear, those words don't mix well. And last I checked I did not play wet nurse to new doctors and I don't let people shadow me unless I am forced with threat of pain or clinic duty. I'm sorry but you have gotten the wrong doctor. Now if you would kindly take your enticing body out that door and leave me with my fantasies I would appreciate it." He stepped aside and motioned for her to walk out the door, he even looked at the door, her, then back to the door thinking maybe she did not get the hint from the open armed gesture but she stayed planted right by his desk.

"Ok, there are only a few females that I will back down to due to not being able to scare them, one being my mother and the other being the Dominatrix I see every Saturday. You don't look like my mother and you are defiantly not scary enough to be Mistress Minx so, why are you still here?"

"I'm sorry Doctor House, I know that you are use to getting your own way but you happen to be stuck with me. Your sentence is a month long so it should not be too horrible to have a shadow floating around for such a short time." House gaffed at the "short time" bit of her statement. She walked around behind him and leaning in to whisper just behind his ear, House could feel her breath on his neck and ear, sending shivers down his back, causing flesh to rise, and him to be acutely aware of her proximity to him, "I promise to keep out of the way and stay completely unobtrusive, unless told other wise." She purred while stepping out and round him to come to stand before him but a few steps away just as Cameron came in the room. She looked at House who looked down, his cheeks a faint rosy color, to Pace.

"Hey Pace! I thought your plane landed later! How was your flight?"

"It was good thanks for asking, and I got an earlier flight, should have called you earlier to tell you."

"Looks like you met the boss. Hope he was not too hard on you, sorry I was not here to cushion the blow." Cameron walked in and gave Pace a quick hug before tossing the file she had in her hand on House's desk. "Got a case!"

House looked up in shock at the chummy notes in Cameron's voice as she greeted his new tormentor.

"You know this she-demon! And you knew she would be here! And you did not tell me! I'm hurt! I thought you liked me.' House pouted and dugs in his coat pocket for his pill bottle and tosseg back two.

"If I had told you, you would have ranted and raved at how you are not a wet nurse to new doctors and how you hate having people look over your shoulder and you only allow it under threat of pain or clinic duty. I thought I would save me and everyone else the pain of hearing you whine."

"Wow, you really do know him. He said those exact words to me about, hmmm, fifteen minuets ago." Pace laughed at her friend. House groused muttering something about not whining and how women should not be in the office, and for once in his life voluntarily picked up a medical case file and looked at it.

"Head trauma, shortness of breath and tightness of the chest…said she hit her head while jogging, slight dizziness. Sounds like she should use her inhaler a little more and problly lay off the jogging for a while." House tosses the file back down and turns to discussion room for his morning coffee. Cameron picks up the file and walks after him saying, "No history of asthma in her family and has already been tested for it, negative"

"Loose a little weight and stop eating so many doughnuts" House tosses back over his shoulder as he limps to stand in front of the kitchenette, "And why is there no coffee on! Its 7:30 and I want coffee!"

"The patient is 5'5 and 145 lbs, she is perfect weight for her height and bone size, also she was tested no heart problems or signs of heart attack. Also, she feels cold and is shaking while her body temp is normal and she is sweating. She has minor sore throat and light sneezing. There is no coffee because it is 7:30 and I just walked in the door, sorry for the delay."

Pace smiled at her friend as she explained the symptoms and deflected the master deflector. She could not help but notice how they worked off each other and how well Cameron seemed to know her aggravating boss.

"Shaking and cold while her body temp says normal and she is perspiring, now that is interesting." House went over to the white board and started to write down symptoms as Cameron put on the coffee. House finished the list of symptoms just as Chase and Forman walked in the door, turning around and sticking out his hand in perfect timing to grab the offered coffee from Cameron as she walked by, and tossing case files to the boys he announced, "Good morning! We have a case! Twenty three year old female that has the chills with no fever, she became ill while jogging and hit her head, has tightness of chest and finds it hard to breath, also she is a little dizzy. Go!"

Forman opened the case file and piped in with, "Could be a panic attack causing her to freak out, she starts to gasp and becomes dizzy with lack of oxygen causing her to trip and hit her head."

"No signs of mental stress or anguish but to a PET scan just incase." House turns to look at the board thinking while Chase ticks off with, "What about acute adrenal crisis? That would explain her lightheadedness, hard to breath, the chills…"

House cuts in, "Good but no cigar, she was checked for that when she came in and no nausea."

"What about the flu?" Cameron's voice sounds muffled as she looks over the patients file, not bothering to look up.

"Again, no nausea and no diarrhea and no fever. Are you even reading this file? Come one people, think! What causes someone to feel cold when they are running no fever, to find it hard to breath when they are apparently completely healthy..?" House looks at his team with dismay.

"What about SARS? Sever acute respiratory syndrome? It explains the shortness of breath, the chills, dizziness, and I bet she is having pain while breathing." Pace chimed in but fell silent as House rounded on her with a look of pure shock and minor annoyance.

"Go and get a blood sample from her, listen to her heart and do a chest CT scan to see what is going on in the lungs." His team rose and started walking out the door, Pace thought it best to try and sneak out with them but House had other plans.

"Doctor Maguire? A moment, please?" House snapped the lid onto his marker and set it on the ledge as she walked up to him, she opened her mouth to speak but he held up a hand. "You came here to shadow me and how I work. I begrudgingly agreed to it because no matter how much I whine and complain and make everyone miserable I really have no choice, however, when you said that you were an intern it implied that you had no knowledge to offer, now I find that this is not true. I find that interesting, I will be watching for your real motives as to why you are here really." He turned from her and limped into his office, coffee in hand, leaving her wide eyes and slack jawed. She quickly decide that a month was going to be a very long time indeed and turned to go and help out in the lab.


End file.
